The present invention relates to phased array antennas, and more particularly to an antenna system including a power management and control system.
Phased array antennas may be used for satellite and line-of-sight communications, and other applications related to radar/sensors, electronic warfare (EW) or the like. Radiation patterns or beams from a phased array antenna may typically be controlled or steered electronically by varying the time-delay or phasing of electrical signals to individual transmit and receive elements forming the array antenna without moving any parts. Accordingly, a power management and control system for such antenna systems needs to be efficient particularly in satellite or other space vehicle applications, terrestrial mobile vehicle applications or other applications where capacity may be limited and efficient or optimum use of power is highly desirable. Additionally, such systems are desirably reconfigurable during a mission and systems' reliability can directly impact overall system reliability and performance. For mission critical space applications in particular, electronic subsystems must be able to tolerate a certain amount of single component failures and the failures must be contained from propagating and affecting other circuits or components.